Let’s begin with the big news of the year, the anti-satellite test (A-Sat), which the DRDO successfully carried out in March 2019. How would you sum it up?

It was a major technological achievement for the nation. Necessary technologies were already developed as a part of our missile development programmes and ballistic missile defence programmes; but it was required to be customised and integrated together to achieve the desired outcome. Though the building blocks were put in place some time back, the activities of the mission for demonstration of the technological capability were initiated only after the clearance by Prime Minister in late 2016.

Confidentiality was a major challenge for development of a programme of this magnitude, involving multiple laboratories and agencies, with technical complexities. It was also required to conduct the tests at the earliest. A lot of planning was involved from conceptualisation of the mission through development to interception demonstration within two years, ensuring that it is kept confidential. The short time taken by DRDO to migrate from concept to capability demonstration indicates the maturity of technologies, dedication, willingness and capability of DRDO fraternity to accept technological challenges for its time-bound realisation.

We were able to hit the satellite directly with the precision of a few centimetres. The altitude was deliberately kept low, about 250-300km, to avoid the long-term effects of the hit, like the scattering of the debris in the higher orbit. In terms of capability, we can reach beyond 1,000km. Since most of the satellites are in low earth orbit, this capability is adequate as of now. Of course, there are some satellites at medium altitude too, but once we have demonstrated this capability, we can always enhance it by increasing the propulsive power in the vehicle.

Are you working on enhancing that?

No, we are not planning to enhance it as all the technology requirements for the requisite capability have already been established. Having achieved the desired objectives, this programme has been successfully concluded.

It is also important to note that such tests cannot be done repeatedly.

The government established a task force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) last year as part of its initiative Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) that was launched during DefExpo 2018. Since then both Bharat Electronics Ltd and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd have announced their programmes pertaining to AI, robotics and swarm technologies. What is DRDO’s role in this? Is it a mere coordinator or is it guiding the research?

iDEX is a nice initiative by department of defence production (DDP). DRDO, being the only agency involved with design and development of defence systems, is pursuing a lot of research in this area. DRDO has been encouraging and providing technological and other support to academic institutions, like IITs and industries, both public and private sectors, through various platforms and will continue to support them.

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Are you also looking at some kind of collaboration with friendly foreign nations who are doing advanced research in this area?

We have been working with several countries including the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France and Israel through joint working groups on technology. We have identified several futuristic technologies for joint research in areas like nano technologies, nano sensors, deep learning etc. However, we are still to have any specific collaboration or agreement.

We are conscious of the fact that technologies of the future need to be developed within the country to avoid perpetual dependence on other countries. DRDO has set u